Casey Thompson was 'okay' with Nebraska giving Chubba Purdy snaps

One of the biggest moments in Nebraska’s win over Indiana last week was Mickey Joseph’s decision to pull Casey Thompson and put Chubba Purdy in the game. It was an important decision, and Joseph said he spoke with Thompson about it afterward.

It turns out the Texas transfer handled it well in his conversation with Joseph on Sunday.

“Casey was okay,” Joseph said. “Casey was okay with that. He came in yesterday. We sat down.”

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In fact, Joseph said he was perfectly fine having a conversation about the move. He wants his players to feel like he has an “open door” style policy, meaning they can sit down and talk with him whenever they have concerns about anything during the season.

That doesn’t mean he won’t shoot straight with them, though.

“One thing the kids can do with me, we can talk and they can tell me how they feel,” Joseph said. “He didn’t want to be taken out of the game. He expressed that, he let me know, ‘I didn’t want that.’ I explained why we did it because I’m always going to explain to them why because this is a ‘why’ generation. [Thompson] wants to know why, so I told him why and he said, ‘Well, I don’t want to do that again.’ I said, ‘Well, I don’t want to do it either. But if I have to, I will.’ Because I’m going to be consistent with them.

“I’m not going to be wishy-washy with them. I’m going to be consistent with them when I’m saying he’s no different than anybody else. We think he’s struggling, he’s coming out. That’s anybody. That’s the way you’ve got to run your football team. You can’t treat him any differently. He doesn’t want to be treated any differently. But he expressed how he felt, and I appreciated that. At the end of the day, he understands who’s the coach.”

Purdy initially came in after Thompson took a shot to the shoulder, but played another series later on after a heated conversation with offensive coordinator Mark Whipple. He didn’t throw a pass, took two carries for -10 yards and fumbled once in the end zone. Meanwhile, Thompson completed 18 of 27 passes for 270 yards and two touchdowns in the effort.